Israel cuts off fuel and electricity to Gaza; "Jews are effecting a holocaust" -=- Israel strangles Gaza; UN aid turned back; India collaborates with Israel

 

(1) Israel cuts off fuel and electricity to Gaza; "Jews are effecting a holocaust”

(2) Israel strangles Gaza; UN aid turned back; India collaborates with Israel

(3) Mideast Arabs, Iran's president worried over Gaza

(4) Israeli draft dodgers may lose driver's license, right to vote

(5) Putting the Palestinians to work in 'projects' funded by Germany & Japan

(6) "Friends of Israel" have embedded themselves "in the British political establishment

(1) Israel cuts off fuel and electricity to Gaza; "Jews are effecting a holocaust”From: "Kristoffer Larsson" <kristoffer.larsson@sobernet.nu> Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:13:40 +0100 "Jews are effecting a holocaust in Gaza"

From Khalid Amayreh in Israel-occupied East Jerusalem

21 January, 2008

Palestinians and human rights organizations operating in the Occupied Palestinian territories have accused Israel of effecting a real holocaust against Gaza Strip's estimated 1.5 million inhabitants following a decision by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak to completely sever fuel and electricity supplies to the coastal territory.

Israel, which in 2005 withdrew its occupation troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip, retained tight control of all Gaza's border-crossings, reducing the small crowded territory to a huge detention camp.

Israel drastically stepped up its collective punishment of Gazans following Hamas's takeover of the Strip in June 2006. The Israeli army, which exerts overwhelming influence on the Israeli political establishment, has also been carrying out nearly daily incursions and attacks inside Gaza resulting in the death and maiming of hundreds of Palestinians in recent weeks. It is widely believed that the vast bulk of the casualties are innocent civilians.

On Sunday, 20 January, more than 90% of Gazans spent the night in total darkness as Israel decided to halt vital fuel supplies, ostensibly to coerce the masses to rise up against Hamas which refuses to lend legitimacy to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

The nearly total shutdown of power plants is already causing catastrophic effects and paralyzing vital services all over the Gaza Strip.

Hospital sources reported many deaths caused by the stoppage of electricity supplies.

"Electricity-powered medical machines such as incubators, dialysis and artificial breathing machines as well as many other vital life-saving medical equipment are no longer functioning. This means certain death for patients," said Omar al-Shawwa, a paramedic at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Al-Shifa hospital is the largest hospital in Gaza and it has been operating on an emergency footing for two years as the delivery of vital medical supplies continued to be restricted by the Israel.

"It is true the Jews are not sending our children to the ovens, but they are killing us using other means," said a visibly depressed al Shawwa. "Maybe the Europeans and the Americans won't believe it, but the truth is that the Jews are effecting a real holocaust against our people."

TV cameras showed hair-raising scenes of dying Palestinian children whose survival depends on certain electricity-powered medical machines. In northern Gaza, a paralyzed child was fluctuating between life and death as members of his family alternately sought to keep him breathing using a manually-operated rubber pump.

Meanwhile, Palestinian and UN officials in Gaza have warned of an impending disaster affecting all walks of life in Gaza.

Hasan Abu Ramadan, a Palestinian economist, said the present humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip would be deepened by the ongoing Israeli blockade on fuel and food supplies. He warned that the Gaza Strip could go from a situation of deep poverty to all out famine, disease and malnutrition.

Abu Ramadan noted that more than 80% of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants were surviving with the help of food aid from international organizations such as URWA.

Another urgent warning was issued by John King, Director of UNRWA operations in Gaza.

Speaking during an impromptu press conference in Gaza Sunday night, King urged the international community to intervene immediately to prevent an imminent humanitarian disaster from occurring.

King pointed out that innocent civilians were paying a heavy price as a result of the current conflict, saying that bakeries were stopping making bread and that hospitals were cold as electricity generators stopped due to fuel shortages.

"Medicine is not available, paper is not available, cement to build graves is not available, even coffins for the dead are not available. There is also a serious food shortage, and the prices of available food are very high."

King said that everyone in Gaza now had a problem that was exacerbating as time passed. He argued that it was shameful that some circles, an obvious allusion to Israel and its allies, were making arguments about the situation in Gaza.

"I can't describe in words what is happening in Gaza."

Meanwhile, extreme right-wing circles in Israel have called on the Israeli government to annihilate Gazans.

In Jewish settlements in and around the West Bank town of Hebron, Jewish settlers were seen dancing in an apparent expression of joy over the tragedy in Gaza, with some of them of them shouting in Hebrew "death to the Arabs" and "Arabs to the Gas chambers."

Earlier, settlers wielding automatic rifles attacked Palestinians and vandalized their property in Hebron in full view of Israeli occupation soldiers who looked on passively. At least 11 Palestinians were reported injured, with most of them suffering cuts and bruises and other minor injuries.

Since the beginning of 2008, the Israeli occupation army murdered as many as 40 Palestinians and injured hundreds, with many suffering permanent disabilities.

The often pornographic bloodshed prompted UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, John Dugard, to castigate Israel's indiscriminate killing of Palestinians.

Dugard said Israel ought to have foreseen the loss of life and injury to many civilians when it targeted the Ministry of Interior building in Gaza earlier a few days ago.

The wanton killings, said Dugard, "raises very serious questions about Israel's respect for international law and its commitments to the peace process."

He added that Israeli atrocities violated the strict prohibitions on collective punishment contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention.

(2) Israel strangles Gaza; UN aid turned back; India collaborates with Israel

Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:43:48 -0500 From: "Sadanand, Nanjundiah (Physics Earth Sciences)" <sadanand@mail.ccsu.edu>

{Comment - NS} The lights are out. Gazans are having a candle-light march to protest the closing down of electricity, and fearing their fate.

Let the people in Gaza starve to death. Let infants in incubators die as their cribs turn cold. Much cheaper getting rid of Palestinians by a slow and painful genocide than risking IOF soldiers' lives and equipment! And if you kill them all, there will be no more qassams. I would not bet on the qassams ending, however. There will be others to take up the cause, even if Israel kills every last Gazan.

the true character of Israel's leaders: Israeli Knesset members demand liquidating Nasrallah! A bunch of gangsters who know no law and order! Liquidation/assassination is the name of the game. And they call Israel a democratic country. Hell no! Mafia better describes its nature. {End}

'Israel's sanctions strengthen Hamas'

www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3496673,00.html

As Gaza plunges into darkness due to power shortage, locals warn of impending humanitarian crisis. One resident says Israel's 'collective punishment' increases solidarity among Palestinians Ali Waked

Wide areas in the Gaza Strip plunged into darkness Sunday evening, as a local power plant was forced to shut down /www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3496414,00.html> its turbines after Israel stopped fuel supply into the Strip. Many Gazans now fear that a massive humanitarian crisis is imminent, despite Israel's claims that 70% of power supply is still provided by an Israeli plant.

Hospitals in the Strip have already announced the cancellation of all operations scheduled for the coming days. Health officials are worried that electrical medical equipment, such as dialysis machines and respirators, would collapse. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 10 minutes without electricity could lead to the death of dozens of patients.

Gaza residents are also concerned about a sanitation crisis should sewage pumps stop working. Furthermore, some sources in the Strip estimated that most factories would begin shutting down operations as of tomorrow (Monday).

UNRWA also concerned

Thousands of Gazans were set to participate in a "candle rally" Sunday evening, and take to the streets with candles in their hands in protest of the power outage. Media outlets in the Strip, especially those affiliated with Hamas, have been urging international organizations and the Arab world to intervene throughout the day.

The United National Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) recently announced that humanitarian aid has not been permitted into the Gaza Strip since the crossings have been closed.

"It (the power plant shutdown) is going to have a significant impact on the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza," said Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the UNRWA, whose aid shipments have been turned back.

"The power outage in Gaza will not hurt Hamas, on the contrary - it will strengthen the Islamic organizations, so that even secular Palestinians, who used to support Fatah, will sympathize with Hamas," Youssef Khatib, a clerk from the Khan Younis area, told Ynet.

"Israel's collective punishment policy would not lead to results. I am not a Hamas man, but I tell my children that the blackout is the result of Israel's war against us," he added.

According to Khatib, Israel's sanctions worked to heighten solidarity among the Palestinians. "The Palestinian people unite in theses tough moments. Although the internal strife in Gaza exists, mutual help is increasing. ===

Subject: I hope this is being reported in a way that won't make us ashamed later.

Dear Charlie, No electricity, people are going hungry, no bread, and no medicine and lots of things that are missing. people are out in the streets now calling for the world to end the starvation and siege. it might be that people's only option is to break out the borderline and go to Egypt and get food. It's scary here. no bread, no water at home where I am. I have some leftovers biscuits from two days ago. but my laptop batteries will be flat soon. I will find a new agency from those who have electricity generators to recharge my laptop and keep online, if you don't hear from me this is why. Again, I fear Israeli warplanes will bomb the people in the streets. people are in lines trying to find bread. I never seen this in all my 23 years life!

Mohammed

"The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything."

Albert Einstein

www.rafahtoday.org <http://www.rafahtoday.org/> ===

India launches Israeli satellite

India has successfully launched an Israeli spy satellite into orbit, officials at the Sriharikota space station in southern India say. BBC News, Jan. 21, 2008

The Israeli press is reporting that the satellite will improve Israel's ability to monitor Iran's military activities.

Indian officials that given these sensitivities, the operation was secret and carried out under tight security. The Tecsar satellite - sometimes referred to as the Polaris - was put into space on Monday morning.

'Sinister tie-up'

Tecsar is said to have enhanced footage technology, which allows it to transmit images regardless of daytime and weather conditions.

It is considered to be one of the most advanced spy satellites that India has put into orbit to date. Correspondents say the launch was the second commercial mission on behalf of another country that has been carried out by the Indian Space Research Organisation.

"It was a grand success," an unnamed official told the AFP news agency from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. Israeli newspapers reported that both Israeli and Indian space engineers were at the launch, and that 80 minutes afterwards, the Israel Aerospace Industries' (IAI) ground station began receiving Tecsar's first signals.

The 300kg (650-pound) satellite is reported to be Israel's most advanced space craft, and equipped with a camera that can take pictures in almost any weather conditions. Israel reportedly took the decision to launch the satellite from India three years ago, and asked for Delhi's help because it lacks a vehicle capable of boosting the satellite into a polar orbit.

"The kind of low-earth polar orbit they are putting the satellite into, it is meant to give Israel the capability to keep an eye on the Iranian nuclear programme," an unnamed defence analyst told the AFP news agency.

"This is bound to be seen in the Islamic world as a sinister tie-up between Israel and India," he said. Experts also say that the launch is an "important milestone" in the commercialisation of India's 45-year-old space programme, which put an Italian satellite in orbit in April last year for a fee of $11m.

Correspondents say that India is eager to compete against the US, Russia, China, the Ukraine and the European Space Agency in providing commercial satellite launch services, a market worth about $2.5bn a year. India started its space programme in 1963, and has since designed, built and launched its own satellites into space. news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7199736.stm ___

Written to the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India

At : usxps@mea.gov.in

Jan. 21, 2008

Dear Sir

As an Indian I am thoroughly ashamed of the government led by Shri Man Mohan Singh for its collaboration with the apartheid government of Israel. ...

Sincerely Dr. Sadu Nanjundiah Professor, Central Connecticut State University New Britain, CT., USA

(3) Mideast Arabs, Iran's president worried over Gaza

From: Sami Joseph <sajoseph2004@yahoo.com> Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:50:55 -0800 (PST)

www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=9371609 Mideast Arabs, Iran's Ahmadinejad worried over worsening Gaza situation

The Associated Press

Monday, January 21, 2008

DAMASCUS, Syria: Mideast Arab states were increasingly worried Monday over the worsening Gaza situation following Israel's fuel cuts to the coastal strip. Iran's hardline president also expressed concern for the plight of the Palestinians in the militant Hamas-controlled region.

The worries were prompted by Israeli efforts to stop Palestinian rocket fire and refusal to reopen border crossings or allow in crucial fuel supplies. Gaza City awoke Monday to closed bread shops and gas stations, while officials warned of a possible humanitarian crisis after Gaza's only power plant was shut down Sunday morning.

Lebanon and Syria called for an emergency Arab summit to discuss the Israeli blockade and military operations.

Syrian Foreign Ministry demanded "an immediate end to the collective punishment and Israeli crimes," saying Israel was violating "the simplest rules of human rights," while Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora described Gaza developments as a serious escalation of Israel's "racial discrimination and blatant human rights violations against Palestinians, under the pretext of confronting Hamas."

By nightfall Monday, Israel decided to ease the blockade and allow some diesel fuel and medicine into Gaza on a one-time basis. Israeli defense officials said the shipments will be allowed on Tuesday, adding the decision came after a high-level consultation called by Defense Minister Ehud Barak. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.

Earlier Monday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called Barak and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and urged them to ease the blockade.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Islamic and Arabic countries should urgently stop the "Zionists from continuing their crimes" and called for an emergency meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the official IRNA news agency reported.

In addition to the fuel cuts and blockade, Israel has also stepped up military operations in Gaza. Since last Tuesday, more than 35 Gazans have been killed, including a son of Mahmoud Zahar, the most senior Hamas leader in Gaza.

In a statement issued by his office, Lebanon's Saniora said the Israeli actions in Gaza were "racist and barbaric" and that the world is not allowed to "remain silent on the Israeli actions."

In Syria, Ahmed Jibril, head of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, called the blockade "war crimes" and cryptically warned it would have "dire consequences not only on the Palestinian people but also on pro-U.S. Arab regimes."

Jibril said recent attacks in Iraq against U.S. troops were an effort "to express anger over the siege in Gaza," adding that this might happen anywhere in the world.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' Syria-based political bureau, said the Israeli cutoff was a "crime against humanity, contrary to all international laws."

Palestinians in Lebanon's 12 refugee camps observed a general strike Monday to protest the Gaza situation. While shops and schools were closed, Palestinians marched and staged sit-ins in the teeming camps against what Hamas called Israel's "oppressive and terrorist blockade" of Gaza.

In Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest refugee camp near the southern city of Sidon, Palestinian women burned American and Israeli flags, chanting "Allah Akbar," or "God is Great" in Arabic, and called for suicide attacks in the heart of Tel Aviv.

Jordanian columnist Bassam Emoush linked the Gaza developments with this month's Mideast visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, who he said blamed the Arabs for the region's shortcomings but failed to "mention those responsible for massacres" against the Palestinians.

"The irony is that instead of ending the Zionists' crimes, Bush gave us lectures on peacemaking ... and tried to incite us against Iran," Emoush, a former government minister sacked for his membership in the country's largest Islamic group, wrote in the pro-government Al Rai newspaper.

In Kuwait, the foreign ministry said it has asked the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to pressure Israel to lift the Gaza siege. Foreign ministry undersecretary Khaled al-Jarrallah told the ambassadors of the five countries it was their "international responsibility" to do this, state-owned Kuwait News Agency said.

Concerns over Gaza were also raised in Europe, where EU's external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said that while Europe fully understands Israel's need to defend its citizens, the closure of the border crossings and fuel cuts would "exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation."

"I have made clear that I am against this collective punishment of the people of Gaza," Ferrero-Waldner said and urged Israel to restart fuel shipments and reopen border crossings. passage of humanitarian and commercial supplies. __

Associated Press Writers Zeina Karam in Beirut, Lebanon, Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, Diana Elias in Kuwait City and Paul Ames in Brussels contributed to this report.

(4) Israeli draft dodgers may lose driver's license, right to vote

From: "Kristoffer Larsson" <kristoffer.larsson@sobernet.nu> Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:54:55 +0100

www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/944035.html

Last update - 11:23 13/01/2008

Worse than draft dodging

By Haaretz Editorial

MK Eitan Cabel has proposed a bill that would take away the right to vote from anyone who evaded army service. Such a proposal, which the Israel Defense Forces backs, proves the need to remain on constant alert against unreasonable legislation, especially when it is proposed by well-meaning people. Cabel's bill may pass, and if it does not, maybe it will sometime in the future. If it does not target evaders, maybe it will target Arabs, or non-Jews, or women refusing to have children, or anyone whom an MK decides does not sufficiently contribute to society.

Proposals to revoke the right to vote have been raised in the past and have been directed against Arabs. This time the effort is aimed at draft dodgers, whom Major General Elazar Stern described as "anyone who is not conscripted and who is recognized by those close to him as someone who should be drafted." But Stern has no one to blame but himself, and the IDF's inefficient conscription mechanism is finding it difficult to enforce the mandatory conscription law. A draft evader is someone the army exempted from service for some reason. The responsibility for conscription cannot be passed from the army to the people.

The penalties proposed for draft evasion are revoking driver's licenses and not issuing licenses for work in medicine and psychology. And one can never know if MKs' imaginations will lead them to revoke health-service benefits or stipends for the elderly. The fact the Knesset is willing to harm citizens' basic rights is a greater cause for concern than the phenomenon of draft evasion by individuals.

In Israel, revoking the right to vote as punishment is not even applied against murderers, rapists and spies spending a lifetime in prison - so important does Israeli democracy consider this civil right. The right to vote is also granted to those who do not even live in Israel, do not pay taxes here, and whose children are not drafted - hundreds of thousands of Jews who became citizens under the Law of Return and then retired to their homes in Brooklyn or Argentina. Planeloads of voters arrive here on the eve of elections. As such, the proposal to remove the right to vote from those who actually live here, but whose behavior is considered unpatriotic, is strange.

The proposed descriptions for the word "evader" are more than anything reminiscent of those given to the term "anti-American" during the McCarthy era in the United States. After all, it is the army that determines who is an evader by dismissing that person from conscription, so all it has to do to stop the evasion is to make its criteria stricter.

Once the state exempted Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox from military service, shortened the duration of service for hesder yeshiva students, and offered an "incompatible" category for others, it is hard to comprehend who exactly are the draft evaders.

The proposed legislation should be tossed in the trash because it is shameful, and the law on mandatory conscription should be exercised with greater efficiency. The motivation to serve in the army is not gained by punishing, but though promises for those willing to contribute more and by ending the discrimination favoring the Haredim.

(5) Putting the Palestinians to work in 'projects' funded by Germany & Japan

Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2008 05:45:43 -0000 From: Rowan Berkeley <rowan.berkeley@googlemail.com>

'A valley of economic harmony'

Yaakov Lappin, JPost www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1200572481680&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

An ambitious plan to launch a series of economic ventures in the West Bank is one step closer to being realized, according to President Shimon Peres. The initiatives, collectively known as the Peace Valley, have major international financial backing and aim to create 100,000 new jobs for Palestinians, he told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday at Beit Hanassi. "Politics is about borders, while economics shape relations," Peres said. Time was running out to find a diplomatic solution vis-à-vis the Palestinian Authority, he said, adding that there was no need for economic initiatives to be put on hold while Israeli and Palestinian negotiators hammer out the thornier issues. "One-hundred thousand workplaces will strengthen the position of Palestinians more than 50,000 guns," he said. The governments of Japan, Turkey and Germany have earmarked hundreds of millions of dollars of investment money for the projects, the Post has learned. According to Peres, the foreign backers were motivated by a desire to see peace in the region and by their own financial interests. "They are all interested in peace," he said. "Turkey wants to show that it is contributing to Muslims and that it has come to serve peace. Japan wants to show that it is helping to foster relations, and has invested $100 million for an industrial park in Jericho."

Four sites across the West Bank have been selected to underpin the initiative. Japan's deputy ambassador to Israel recently told Peres that a location on the outskirts of Jericho had already been chosen for the construction of an agro-industrial park. Japanese planners are holding talks with Israeli security officials to coordinate the movement of goods and workers, according to a brief seen by the Post. Initial infrastructure construction on the site is scheduled to commence shortly, providing immediate jobs for Palestinians. "Peace and prosperity in the Middle East region is a national interest for Japan," Tatsushi Nishioka, first secretary of the Japanese Embassy in Tel Aviv, told the Post Thursday. "This time, after the Annapolis summit, is when the international community should get together to promote the peace process." Japanese companies could become involved in the project at a later stage, he said. Final talks were now underway to determine who would own the industrial park, he added.

A collaboration by the Turkish, Israeli and Palestinian private sectors, known as the Ankara Forum, is expected to build an industrial zone for textiles near Tarkumiya, west of Hebron. The project received the blessings of the Israeli, Turkish and Palestinian presidents during a trilateral summit in Ankara last November, according to an aide to Peres. Germany is set to head an industrial initiative in Jenin, an idea originally agreed upon by Peres and former PA chairman Yasser Arafat. A fourth project envisions the establishment of a joint Israeli-Palestinian university campus and medical center. It is being spearheaded by a Turkish professor, Ali Dogramaci, and will be located on the Israeli side of the Green Line on the northern tip of Samaria, between Afula and Jenin. Peres said the area was ready for this level of economic cooperation, and that creating change was the only way forward. "Otherwise, all we'll have is history," he said. Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz plans to meet with his Jordanian counterpart to discuss a long-standing plan for a joint Israeli-Jordanian airport terminal in Akaba, Peres said. He could not say when work on the terminal would begin.

Peres said he wanted to see Israeli involvement in a future Mediterranean Union, a brainchild of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "The idea is to follow the European Union and create a union based on two core issues - immigration and a Mediterranean Bank to invest in vital development," he said. "The Latin American and Asian versions of this union accomplished good things," he added. Peres said a Mediterranean Union could also play a part in solving the problem of Palestinian refugees. "The union would bring us three partners - the Turks, the most important Muslim country in the region; the French, representing the power of Europe; and the Jordanians, who are keen for economic progress," he said. Meanwhile, John Chambers, the CEO of US computer-networks giant Cisco, is expected to arrive in Israel on January 27 to see how $3 million of his corporation's money is being used to hook up the cities of Nazareth and Nazareth Illit to the Internet, Uri Ben-Porat, an aide to Peres, told the Post Wednesday. The Digital Cities Project will train Arab and Jewish residents of the cities to master Internet technology, he said, and was initiated by Peres several years ago. "This will be Chambers's first visit to Israel," Ben-Porat said. "During his time here, [local employees of] Cisco will show him Israel's technological and creative might in the hi-tech industry."